It’s lunchtime in Tokyo and my Gmail account is malfunctioning. Someone is trying to send me a document for work but I can’t download it. A little part of me rejoices: thanks to this
technological malfunction, I’m able to spend the afternoon writing for myself, insulated from the sorts of work emails that people feel entitled to invade my personal time with whenever they feel
like it.

There’s also a nagging worry though, as I scroll through my Twitter feed, seeing people freaking out over this sudden outage that has denied them access to their Google Drive, email account,
documents, or any of the other endlessly expanding range of Google services that our lives increasingly depend on. There’s a more personal edge to that nagging worry for me too, because Gmail is
the only direct line of contact I have with my mother, almost ten thousand kilometres away in Bristol in the UK.

In addition to occasional writing gigs, and despite Quit Your Band! fading into the past in both Japanese and English editions, I've been featured in a few different things as well over
the past few months, in my capacity as a journalist and as a general Tokyo indie scene face. I'll put some links and explanations below:

While this site has been quiet, there has nonetheless been a fair amount going on (follow me on
Twitter to get news as it comes in, in among the occasional 2AM political rant). I've written a few articles. Here's a summary: